Since UW speciality is not engineering
I literally just said in my last post that they both have great engineering departments.
Shoot, you could go to MIT and be jobless.
@DoubleUW I saw you posts and got to know that you are from UW( Mech Engr). Actually I am stressed between Purdue ME and UW ME. Since you have worked in different companies, do you feel that Purdue has unjust advantage over UW in job placements?
@boneh3ad Yeahh you are right.
You want to be a mechanical engineer, and I assume you want to be the best one you can be. Purdue is the better engineering school.
Purdue has the fourth largest international student population of any university in the USA. Are the people in your locality who went to Purdue satisfied with it? You should be asking them a lot of questions.
Winters in Wisconsin are long and bitterly cold - snow, ice, sleet, nasty wind chill factors. Winters are fairly rough in Indiana, but not as bad as Wisconsin.
If I were in your shoes, Purdue would be my clear choice.
@Defensor Academically Purdue has a slight edge over Wisconsin. But Wisconsin offers more well rounded experience. The thing that scares me is that will there be any diff in job placements If I perform equally good at both universities?
“more well rounded experience” in what ways?
Purdue offers over 200 undergraduate majors and more than 70 master’s and doctoral programs. 18 intercollegiate sports teams and membership in the prestigious Big Ten Conference. More than 900 student organizations. Students from 126 different countries.
@Defensor Wisconsin is socially alive, great location, costs less, beautiful campus, great alumni network, academically reputed, equal starting salaries as Purdue, sub urban setting.
West Lafayette is considered the most culturally diverse city in the entire American Midwest. The campus is a comfortable 2600+ acres, and also quite pretty. The population of West Lafayette and neighboring Lafayette is about 100,000, and you’re only about an hour’s drive from Indianapolis. Along with Purdue’s over 900 student organizations and 46 fraternities etc., your social life should be just fine.
Have you ever been to Wisconsin? Nice state, but It has nasty, long, cold winters. A guy I know from California thought he’d be OK going to school in Madison - he dropped out and went back to California before the end of the first winter. He apparently wasn’t happy about going outside one morning and finding out that the oil in his car had turned to sludge because of the bitter cold.
There’s no doubt that UW-Madison is academically reputed, but in the particular field you’re interested in, Purdue has the better reputation. Talk to those people in your locality who attend/attended Purdue, get their input.
@Defensor Do you feel that there will be any diff in job placement if I perform equally good at both universities?
“West Lafayette is considered the most culturally diverse city in the entire American Midwest.”
Where are your sources for such a sweeping, biased statement? I’d wager Chicago is the most culturally diverse city in the midwest. Madison’s campus, plus surroundings, is generally considered one of the most culturally enriching small cities in the U.S.; Ann Arbor would also rate highly. West Lafayette, not so much. And has Defensor even considered the law passed in Indiana just in the past week, and what it may represent for cultural diversity? If Purdue is more well-rounded, and claims more depth academically and socially than Madison … well, that is not my experience in any shape or form.
Has Defensor taught at any of these research institutions? How old are you? Where is your evidence to back these assertions up? All of the Big Ten institutions are large – each with many departments, clubs, and smaller communities. Size in itself is not sufficient to rate one over the other. If it were, you would choose Ohio State.
With all due respect, I think Defensor – with 14 posts total, plus the above, distorted statement – has damaged his own credibility here. Please, @kkedia, use discernment and research in your college decisions. And posters on this board really ought to back up such strong-headed statements with concrete data. Otherwise it comes off misleading and misinformed.
@anhydrite Do you feel that there will be any diff in job placements if I perform equally at both institutions?
@wis75 do you have any idea if the recent budget cut will have any effect over tuition and fees ?
The differences, in my opinion, woud be slight, and probably as follows: for electrical engineering explicitly, it is possible some internship or recruiting may have a slight boost at Purdue. Not a substantial boost.
The job advantages at Wisconsin, also slight, will grow the more you branch out – into research, other engineering-related avenues, business/tech-related positions, etc. In other words, Wisconsin has broader strengths and international pull. But again, these are slight. Both educations are reputable and solid. Choose the overall fit, costs, and holistic life experience for you.
I also agree with wis75 – you are overthinking this at this point. And allowing yourself to be swayed by misinformed posts is not helping. Use your critical acumen to come to a personal decision – making your own choice, based on the research, will be better than taking somebody else’s word, whether mine or anybody else. Best of luck-
@anhydrite International pull??
Each time I decide UW some of my friends would day that none knows Wisconsin Madison, Purdue is more reputed. So I feel completely lost.
Keep this in mind:
kkedia:
Purdue DOES have a better reputation in engineering than UW-Mad. According to the U.S. News & World Report 2015 rankings of engineering schools, Purdue is ranked 8th in the USA. Wisconsin is ranked 18th. Purdue has a higher peer assessment score, a higher score from engineering school recruiters, and is ranked higher by engineering school department heads.
You stated you want to study mechanical engineering. Purdue is ranked in the top 10 nationally in mechanical engineering by engineering school department heads, according to U.S. News. Wisconsin is NOT ranked in the top 10. Your engineer friends haven’t heard of Wisconsin, because it’s not as highly regarded nationally or internationally as Purdue in engineering.
Purdue’s national engineering rankings (source = U.S. News):
Mechanical - #10
Aerospace - #5
Biological - #1
Civil - #6
Computer - #9
Electrical - #10
Industrial - #8
Not surprisingly, Wisconsin isn’t ranked in the top 10 in any of those specialties.
@Defensor At beginning only I told you that I agree Purdue has a slight edge over Wisconsin Engineering. BTW UW is ranked in top 20 and that is not bad at all. UW has other advantages as I told you.
Don’t you think that we are comparing superlatives?
I mean both are academically reputed and one of the best schools in the world. Wherever you may go, you wont regret.
Also if you go through starting salaries of mech engineers than Purdue has 62k USD while UW has 61k USD. How do you account for this if there is so much diff in engineering reputation of both schools?
Also same companies are recruiting at both universities( I went through entire list)
With all due respect re: your question to me, @kkedia: your circle of friends, at your age, does not constitute a representative international profile for determining which university has a more prominent international reputation. If you were to poll leading academics in several countries, dispersed well across the planet, you would find similar. And yes, such studies are available in the form of the more reputable international rankings, and namely, their peer assessment scores. Academics here don’t often rely on a ranking such as U.S. News, if they would rely on any ranking at all. Much more like the NRC rankings, or perhaps some of the better international indicators.
We have been through this before, no? Please take into consideration the experience and knowledge base of other posters before you make hasty decisions. At either Wisconsin or Purdue, your proposed major will require stable, careful thinking processes, as will your career. The data for this upcoming decision isn’t wholly different, imo.
Please use your research and discernment skills to figure out which is the best for you personally. Ask professionals, or those with ties to academia in the U.S., if you must.
@anhydrite @wis75 @Madison85 Do you have any idea if the state budget cut will have any effect on tuition and fee for international students. I mean I contacted UW but they told me they won’t be able to comment until June. But I have to finalize one before 1 May and for me cost is an important factor.
^^^That certainly should be a major cause for concern, if not this year but in the near future.